Food Manufacturing had the opportunity to correspond with Chris Murtha of Yale Materials Handling
Corporation on the topic of material handling and the use of lift trucks in the food manufacturing industry.

Q. Are there any emerging lift
truck trends that are especially relevant
to food manufacturing operations?

A. The emergence of lithium-ion
batteries in particular has great potential for food manufacturing operations.

These time-sensitive operations requirea high degree of equipment availabil-ity, and do not have the advantage ofextended charging times or unsched-uled repairs and maintenance. A lifttruck powered by lithium-ion batterytechnology addresses these needs byoffering several advantages over otherpower options. Lithium-ion batteriesare capable of lasting up to five timeslonger than traditional lead acid batter-ies and are maintenance-free, meaningthey require no watering and containno acid, a great alternative for foodenvironments. The combined effectsof these advantages allow operators tospend more time moving product andless time on charging or maintenance.Food operations should also payattention to advances in telemetry forimproved asset management. Sinceuptime is such an important factor forfood manufacturing operations, telem-etry helps set informed, data-drivenpreventive maintenance schedules andcan also provide automated alerts tocatch issues before they result in moreexpensive and time-consuming equip-ment outages.

Q. Are there particular types of
lift trucks that operate best in harsh
freezer conditions found in food
manufacturing applications? What
makes trucks best suited for those
temperatures?